The 100th Episode! Exactly How to Pitch and Land a Spot on the Pitchin’ and Sippin’ Podcast – Podcast Transcript

Lexie Smith 

Hi guys Lexie here. And today is a big day for me. Because today, I am recording the 100th episode of the pitching and sipping podcast, which absolutely blows my mind. If you had asked me multiple years ago when I grudgingly started this podcast, but grudgingly because I don’t love the sound of my voice. And it felt like a lot of work. And I felt overwhelmed. I don’t know if I could have ever predicted that we’d be in season five, and that all the amazing things that have ensued from this show would have happened. So here we are, it’s our 100th episode. But those of you who are new, happy binging for those of you who have been with me from the beginning, I cannot thank you enough. I do want to do a little shout out if you’ve been here from the beginning. And you kind of like this podcast, your review, help a girl out, I really, really would appreciate if you take 30 seconds of your day pop down, leave a five star review. I mean, or whatever type of review you feel is, is worthy a quick comment. So in honor of my 100th episode, I felt a lot of pressure to record something really profound. And I’ve been sitting here at my desk for weeks procrastinating. Because again, there’s just something something heavy about the 100th episode, or I’m making it out to be that way in my head. So there’s a couple things we’re going to do today. I don’t know if it checks the profound bucket, but I do hope you find it helpful. First, briefly, I want to reflect on what this podcast has done for me in my business. So whether you’re a publicist, whether you’re a member of the media or a business owner, you can hear how it’s evolved and helped me and maybe that’ll help you decide whether or not you want to get into podcasting. So the first thing that this podcast has done for me, it has given me a platform to invite incredibly unique and diverse perspectives onto a show where it can have a conversation and establish a relationship. It has been a bridge, to learn and to meet incredible people. And I mean, if you have listened to the show, my guests are incredible. They have so much to offer. The members of the media, the PR pros, the founders are also different. I’m really, really try my team and I try really hard to curate a guest roster that is unique and diverse and really speaks to different sides of the industry and has different levels of knowledge in different stages of life, I hope you’ll feel that way I feel that way. So it’s giving me such a great space to connect with people I don’t know if I would have connected with otherwise. So that’s been incredible. The other thing that it’s really done is it’s added to two things to my business, one, credibility. And two, it’s given people an opportunity to get to know me, it’s given people the opportunity to get to decide if they want to work with me, from a coaching perspective, or from an agency perspective, it’s allowed them to get a little bit of taste of what my personality might be like what my my knowledge is like before they commit, which has been really, really great and effective, effective, both for bringing the clients and probably weeding them out. Right. And it’s also been an become such a great tool for my current clients. Some of the guests that I invite on are inspired by pain points or questions that my current clients have. So it’s done so many amazing things for me.

Lexie Smith 

On the flip side, I know it’s done really amazing things for some of my guests. I’ve gotten countless notes saying what will mean on your show really grew my substack list, or I got a new client or multiple clients, or this organization reached out or I was invited to be On another podcast, etc. So I like to think it’s been mutually beneficial. And then for my listeners, which you guys, this is who the show was for, I hope you have learned something. Hope you’ve learned a lot. I have, right? It’s been very humbling. So here’s here’s what I want to do today. Over the course of the last few years having the show, I have been pitched many, many times. I want to talk about how to nail pitching this podcast, how to pitch the pitching. And sippin podcast, okay, and I’m gonna do a little screen sharing.

Lexie Smith 

So here’s a quick plug for you too, because I’m going to point you towards a few things on my website. So for my listeners, bear with me, I’m just pulling up a screen here. Okay, so momentarily, you will see, you are on the Pierburg intercom website. And specifically, I have navigated to the podcast page right here. Okay. If you want to pitch the pitch in and sippin podcast, do not, please do not send me an email. And please do not reach out to me on social media, here’s what I want you to do, I want you to go to this page, and click the button that says that it says that says apply to be a guest. If you pitch me on my email, I will ematic automatically forward you to my producer who will respond and direct you towards this link. So just just skip that step, make it a little less work for me a little less work for Kaylee and go straight here apply to be a guest. So you’re going to click on it. And it’s going to reroute you to a very simple google form. Now, you would be shocked. Are I’ve been shocked to see how many people don’t take the time to truly complete this form thoughtfully. I am giving you a wide open opportunity, right? To provide me with information to book you. Basically, I’m telling you how I want to be pitched right. So let’s go through this form. Simple contact information up top website social media accounts. What type of guests are you one quick mistake that I’ve seen some people make is I’ve seen a lot of public relations, professionals mark themselves as a newsworthy founder when also there they’re actually a PR Pro. So get to understand how I articulate the difference. A founder would be a founder of a startup or a founder of a fashion brand. Otherwise, consider yourself a PR Pro or if you remember media quick that if you’re a combination of some of the above, I also have an option for that. Okay. What has been your favorite pitching and sipping podcast episode to date and why? Now I don’t need a an essay. Write on all the things you love. But but take the time and prove to me that you’ve heard the show. That means something to me, right? Go and genuinely listen to an episode, and comment and tell me what you liked about the guests or what you learned or why you liked that episode. Give me a paragraph doesn’t need to be more than that. Okay. Next, please suggest up to three unique topics that you would like to talk about on the show. This question again is where so many people get it wrong. Go to my library. So if you’re following along, I’m going to go back to my website you can also look at, you know, wherever you’re streaming YouTube, you can look at Spotify, you can look at Apple, and look at the topics and titles of my past episodes. If you do this, you’re going to see a few things. One, you’re going to see that there is a general cadence or format that I use. So if we scroll down, you’re gonna see that for my guest interviews, I usually have one to two key word topics, followed by the type of guest. So for example, or one of our last episodes, effectively representing marginalized and underrepresented groups. Right. So that’s the topic of the show. With NPR with Caitlin Koppel of full swing PR, right, we scroll back down Beauty by lines and mastheads to keywords with writer and editor Mulaney rod right type of guest scrolling down even further

Lexie Smith 

increasing e commerce sales and social commerce strategies with Liz Kressel. Right. So you’re gonna start to see how I format my episode titles. And you’re gonna see the topics that have already been on the show. You want to land land a guest about on the show, you need to bring something new. The other thing you need to do is think about my audience. So here is who My audience is our people who listen to the show are in the PR industry in some capacity. They are in a business spot, whether it be the founder or you know, a marketing director or a PR director within that business, but they’re interested in learning about marketing and PR. Are there a member of the media there, I do have some students as well, but I will I will put that under the PR category. Right? So publicists, people in PR, businesses, people, professionals interested in learning about PR and marketing and members of the media. Those are my three primary listeners, besides my mom and my husband, who hear this show, right, so your topic should be serving them. So I need you to pitch me a new topic that serves that audience. And that you can speak to I get a lot of topics that are very self serving on this form, like learn how I am, you know, learn how I launched a new business in the pandemic. I don’t necessarily see that as hyper relevant, that isn’t, per my show. format, and it’s not something that’s going to necessarily serve my audience. Okay. So I’m gonna go back to the form. So give me three meat topics you would like to talk about on the show, then I literally asked you, how will the topics outline benefit? The listeners? Okay, again, I don’t need an essay, give me give me a paragraph, paragraph, give me a line or two per topic. This is why I think your listeners would benefit from this knowing your goal and your intention of the show. Again, how are these topics suggested relevant to the pitching and sipping show format? So let’s go through an example here. Because this episode, so I want to give you an example of how this was done correctly. So a recent guests on my show, Amber came to me through applying to be on the show, and she needed the application. So I thought it’d be worth looking at it. Okay, so we’re gonna go into the back end, please suggest up to three unique topics that you would like to talk about. Notice the Gen Z perspective on the ever changing media landscape? That one that is something new, I haven’t done that on my show before. Okay. How will it benefit listeners, the above topics are beneficial to those who are looking to diversify their perspectives when it comes to PR each client should I mean weak PR strategy. And I’ve learned how to work with small budgets and unique brands to ensure that they are getting the most out of their investment. A lot of PR pros sometimes get stuck in the traditional world of PR. And I think as a Gen Z publicist, who started her own agency, I have a much different perspective, as opposed to someone who has worked up the corporate ladder for 15 years. Now she’s talked to a variety of the topics that she’s pitched. But she made a really clear case on as to why my listeners would care. How is this relevant, because I can give an inside look into the behind the scenes of how I run my agency, how I work with small businesses, and how I perceive media, PR landscape. Okay, so she’s taken the time again, perfect, perfect length, you got a paragraph for how it will benefit listeners and why it’s relevant. Now, if you’re going what’s relevant, again, listen to the show. But another quick hack. If you go back to my website, I’m going to review the show description. From behind the scenes interviews with the media, to honest conversation with other PR pros, to a look at inspiring brands and entrepreneurs that are rocking the world of PR the pigeon incident podcast talks tips while taking sips and openly discussing what makes those in the world of PR tick. Right? That’s what this show is about. Tell me why your topic and you fit into that format. Okay, so almost done. Here. We have one more section where 95% of people applying don’t take the extra minute to do this part. It says have you left the pitch and zip and podcast your review? You can check either not yet on my way or Yes. A lot of people click not yet on my way. And by the way, this is something when I sit down to go through my applications. This is this is a me thing, but you’re pitching me right me and my team. They don’t leave the review. So why don’t you see that question? Pull open Apple podcasts and take 30 seconds to leave me a review so that you can click Yes, right. It’s just gonna give you gold stars and brownie points in my book. So, again, I just told you how I want to be pitched. I don’t want to be slid into my DMs. I don’t want to be direct to email I want you to go through the skull warmth and be thoughtful and really show me that you’ve listened to this show. I would love Love, love, love, love to have people on who have diverse and new perspectives. Truly this this lights me up. So, whether profound or not I’m not sure but I just want to thank everyone from the bottom of my heart for listening to me to watching me to hearing my guests in to being a part of the show and this community that I’ve been building over the past year. So not your years really, so cheers to you. Cheers to 100 episodes with the pigeon and sippin podcast Hey guys, if you are enjoying the pigeon and sipping podcast, please do me a huge favor and leave a review wherever you are listening. If you want to connect with me to learn more about the PR bar Inc. You can do so on Instagram Act, the PR bar underscore inc or you can check out my website at the PR bar inc.com Cheers